


A Lesson in Teambuilding

by Ayearandaday



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, Ben is cocky, But she'll bite your finger, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Hostage Situations, M/M, Phasma is done, Poe has no self-preservation instincts, Protective Armitage Hux, Protective Ben Solo, Rey is fierce, Rivalry, Robbery, Rose looks like a cinnamon roll, Snark, So is Leia, Teambuilding, Teamwork, Threats of Violence, Threepio lives, especially not cute little fish, everyone hates each other, exasperated Leia, forced teambuilding, ladies kicking asses, no fish was harmed during writing, no graphic description of violence, no one dies, no one pisses off Leia Organa, no sexism in this house, or else, seriously, the robbers should have known better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:08:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23464438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ayearandaday/pseuds/Ayearandaday
Summary: When Leia reaches her boiling point she threatens her employees with mandatory teambuilding. Rey doubts her boss is capable of such betrayal, but an hour later conveniently appeared armed robbers make her reconsider. Well, what's better than to give the 'teambuilders' the taste of their own medicine? Even if she has to team up with her nemesis Ben.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 18
Kudos: 109





	A Lesson in Teambuilding

**Author's Note:**

> I swear, this quarantine is messing with my head. This is a bit darker than usual, but I promise that everyone remains alive and well. 
> 
> Many thanks to my beta fulcrum_of_pemberley who was very concerned with Threepio's well-being.

“You self-righteous prick!” Rey yelled at the top of her lungs, rushing after said prick with stapler engaged.

Ben abruptly spun around. “Oh, that’s rich, coming from you!”

Rey was ready to contradict, stapler ready to support her arguments, when she was almost knocked down by a fuming Rose.

“You little menace!” Hux bellowed after her, his face red with anger.

“Just whom are you calling little, you maypole!” the admittedly short girl hissed with murder in her eyes.

“Well, excuse me, if you’d listen to a word of what…”

“Maybe consider removing that stick from your ass?!” Rose suggested in a frighteningly gentle tone.

It was just another quiet, ordinary day at Rebel Ads. Ever since Exegol Inc., that fantastic once-in-a-lifetime client, had managed to spectacularly lead on both Resistance Ads and First Order Ads, the two companies had had to merge to remain profitable. A decision everyone had now come to regret.

Not letting herself be distracted, Rey returned to the matter at hand and glared at Ben with the intensity of a burning sun. 

“I’m trying to do something here!”

“You’re trying to derail the whole working process!” the man spat, clenching his fists.

“Me?!”

“Yes, you!” Ben growled. “And the thieves and traitors you call friends, and my incompetent moron of an uncle!”

“Don’t you dare call Luke that!”

“Enough!” For such a tiny woman, Leia Organa had an impressive set of lungs. Too bad her employees were too unhinged to actually listen.

“You traitorous piece of work!” Phasma furiously rounded on Finn who was brandishing a ruler like a sword at her.

“You have something to say, you chrome dome?” he taunted.

The blonde woman lunged at him, but the man was too fast.

“Enough!” Leia yelled again.

Alas, it only distracted Ben long enough for Rey to kick his shin. He let out a string of creative expletives and cornered her between the printer and the wall with every intention of voluntary manslaughter.

“Luke, do something!” Rey cried, trying to kick Ben again.

“Boss, say something!” he demanded of Snoke, who detachedly observed the scene alongside the Organa-Skywalker twins.

Luke pensively pat his beard. “You know what?”

His colleagues froze in expectation. The man was considered a god of the advertising world, or at least he used to be. Surely, he could solve this hot mess with his wisdom.

“I quit.”

Leia was the first to work through her shock. “Excuse me?!”

Her brother shrugged. “I’m so done with all of this. Aggression hampers my spiritual development.” He absently patted Leia’s shoulder as she stared at him with mouth agape. “You’ve got it, sis.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” the woman snapped back.

“Hmm, somewhere nice and quiet. Ireland?” Luke had the audacity to wave at them. “See you around, kids.”

“The fuck?” Poe asked loudly, voicing the thoughts of the whole room. Everyone had turned to stare at Snoke and Leia.

“You know what?” the other man asked suddenly, buttoning his gold brocade jacket. “I quit, too.”

“What? You can’t!”

Snoke rolled his eyes. “Watch me. Apparently Skywalker can fuck off but I, for some reason, have to stay and deal with these kindergartners?” he nodded toward the rest of the room. “Not gonna happen. I have enough money to spend the rest of my days in peace and quiet on some nice tropical island.” He gave the outraged woman a thin-lipped smile. “Good luck.”

“Leia!”

“Mom!”

“You can’t…”

“Shut the fuck up!” Leia yelled at the top of her lungs. “All of you. I’ve had enough of this bullshit. Either you learn to work together or…”

“Or?”

“Or there will be teambuilding. And I swear to God, you won’t like it.” She said it with such murderous conviction that it was apparent Ben got his menacing attitude _not_ from his father’s side. “Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Poe mumbled as the rest nodded mutely, too shocked to talk.

“Wonderful,” Leia snapped. “Get back to work. I need a drink,” she muttered under her breath, slamming the door of her office on her way out.

The peace lasted a whole whooping twenty-five hours until Armitage Hux made a careless comment and the self-proclaimed bringer of justice Rose Tico bit his hand in retaliation. And then all hell broke loose.

“That’s it!” Leia yelled over the noise and chaos, looking every inch a firebreathing dragon. “You’ve brought it upon yourselves.”

“Oh come on, it was just a little bite,” Poe whined, trying to play his card of Good Mama’s Boy.

Leia, with her long-developed immunity to cheap tricks, didn’t look impressed.

“Speak for yourself, I’ll need a rabies shot after this,” Hux muttered darkly.

Kaydel loudly snorted and produced from her desk some cute ducky covered band-aids. “Oh, you big baby.”

Hux’s glare could kill.

“This! This is why we need an intervention,” Leia snapped in utter annoyance.

“No, we don’t,” Rey and Ben responded at the same time, then proceeded to stare each other down.

“Yes, you do. I have spoken.” The woman proceeded to pick up her handbag and leave, too angered to deal with the grown-ass preschoolers.

They kept looking daggers at each other.

“It’s your fault,” Rose hissed.

Hux sputtered. “My fault?! You fucking bit me!”

“Because you were an insufferable jerk!”

The two glared at each other until Phasma got between them. “Ahem. I think you should stop. We don’t want  _forced teambuilding socializing_ , do we?”

“No,” both agreed with a wince and shudder.

“She won’t do it, right?” Mitaka the intern asked anxiously.

Poe clapped his back, making the poor guy jump. “Of course not, I know Leia.”

“Do you, though?” Ben asked meaningfully.

Poe glared at him. “Fuck off, Solo.”

“She won’t do it,” Rey whispered to herself as she got back to work. “She just won’t.”

‘ _Will she, won’t she’_ remained the matter of discussion for the next hour. On the one hand, Leia Organa wasn’t a monster, as long as she was properly caffeinated. On the other hand, she was _not to be pissed_. Full stop. Even Ben wasn’t sure what his mother was capable of (“Anything, I tell you, she can do anything.”). The unanimous decision was to wait it out. Then fate decided otherwise.

The door of the office was abruptly knocked open and four armed men dressed in black wearing medical masks rushed in.

“Hands in the air, this is a robbery!”

For a second Rey’s whole life flew before her eyes… until a tiny voice in her head whispered a terrible, horrible, not good, very bad thing. No, it wasn’t possible, right? Leia wouldn’t come up with  _a robbery scenario_ to make them play nice, would she? She turned to Ben and saw the exact same thought written clearly on his face. Rey winced. He groaned. Somewhere out there Poe cursed.

Ben rolled his eyes. “ _Moooom_ .”

The ‘robbers’, brandishing their ‘guns’, forced them all to sit together right in the middle of the common room floor where they tied their hands back with sticky tape. Of course, with Rey’s luck, she ended up tied to Ben fucking Solo of all people. Teambuilding with her nemesis? The day was just getting better and better.

“So who talks first? You talk first or I talk first?” Poe asked cheerfully like the social butterfly he was. Robbery or teambuilding, he just had to be his obnoxious self.

“Shut up,” the man Rey dubbed ‘robber A’ demanded.

“Oh come on! Lighten up.”

“Shut your mouth!” This time the demand was followed by a kick to Poe’s side.

“Rude,” the curly man pouted.

“Can you not tighten the tape so much? It’s uncomfortable,” Bazine complained loudly. Somehow, even tied up on the floor, she managed to look both put together and sexy. Beside her, Kay rolled her eyes and loudly popped chewing gum.

Robber B looked questioningly at Robber A.

“Shut up, bitch!” Robber A snapped.

“Hey, that’s offensive and uncalled for!” Bazine pouted, glaring at him.

“Didn’t your mother teach you anything,” Kaydel supported her. Sure, these guys were paid to get into the role, but it wasn’t an excuse for sexism.

Robber C glanced at Robber A. “Boss, they give me the creeps.”

Hux rolled his eyes. “Trust me, the feeling is mutual.”

Robber C turned to Robber D, who nodded toward A.

A brandished his gun at a deeply unimpressed Ben. “You. Where do you keep the money?”

A slow smirk spread over the man’s face. “Now  _that_ ’s an interesting question. I have my salary account, my trust funds, and also this nice little offshore account…”

“The company money, moron,” A demanded.

“Ah, that’s more a question for Armitage, he’s finance, but we do have two…”

“Three,” Hux interjected.

“Three company accounts with two different banks.” Ben smiled politely at the man.

Robber A, clearly pissed, lifted his gun and shot in the air. To everyone’s surprise, the gun turned out to be real, actually damaging the ceiling.

Finn whistled loudly while Mitaka winced.

Hux almost jumped out of his bonds. “Hey, who’s going to cover that?!”

“Leia, obviously,” Ben muttered darkly. “It was her idea after all.”

“The cash!” A demanded, trying to get them back on track. “Where. Do. You. Keep. The. Cash?”

Ben sighed dramatically, very upset with his inability to count on fingers. “Let’s see. We have a Children in Need donation box that this one,” he nodded toward Rey, “manages, we have a swear jar, which is probably far more full at this point,” the man added conspiratorially, “and we had Luke’s surprise birthday party fund we definitely don’t need anymore.”

“You forgot Leia’s emergency money,” Kaydel supplied helpfully.

“Oh, right. Thanks, Kay,” Ben responded in a show of good esprit de corps.

“You’re welcome,” the girl smiled, equally pleased with herself.

The ‘robbers’ looked at each other nervously. Perhaps they hadn’t expected them to play nicely? Joke’s on them, and Leia, too.

“You two,” A pointed at Ben and Rey, “donation box. You two,” he pointed at Rose and Armitage, “swear jar. You three,” he nodded toward Kay, Baz, and Mitaka, “emergency money. You three,” he narrowed his eyes at Poe, Finn, and Gwen, “ _don’t move_.” 

“Yes, sir, yes, sir, three full bags, sir,” Poe responded dutifully.

“And shut the fuck up!”

While Poe pouted, Rey sensed her opportunity to speak up. “Excuse me! Can you not pair us two?”

“Yes, please,” Ben nodded vigorously.

_What an ass_ , Rey thought. She was a perfectly nice teambuilding partner, unlike him.

“No.”

“But…”

“I said NO!”

“Ok, fine.” She would have raised her hands placatingly if they weren’t tied. Apparently there _were_ asses bigger than Ben. 

Under the watchful eye of Robber A, they reluctantly got up and slowly headed to the exit. Luckily for them, the ‘robbers’ hadn’t actually tied her and Ben together, so at least they could walk normally.

“Hey, Solo, how long do you think it’s going to last?” Rey quietly whispered, shooting a surreptitious glance at their captor.

“Until my mom shows mercy,” Ben scoffed. “Or…”His smile was positively wicked.

“You were saying?” she glanced at him with interest.

“Until we learn up to work together.” He wiggled his eyebrows meaningfully.

“You’re thinking what I’m thinking?” Rey glanced back at Robber A.

Ben eyed her with interest. “If you’re in, I’m in.”

Oh, she was in, she was so,  _so_ in. “Let’s do it.”

“No talking,” A warned them.

“Sure, Mr. Robber,” Rey answered sweetly, like the good hostage she was. Leia was going to be thrilled with their performance. She followed Ben, who led the three toward the storage room, a space left for anything from cleaning supplies to old documents.

“Where do you think you’re going?” A demanded, sensing something amiss.

“We keep the box in the archive,” Ben replied smoothly. “It’s a bit messy,” he said apologetically. Rey almost burst out laughing. _Messy_ didn’t even cover what was going on in there. Then again, the right amount of controlled chaos was exactly what they needed right now. 

“No funny business or I’ll shoot,” A warned.

Ben and Rey both nodded dutifully.

After a minute of hopping over empty buckets and overflowing paper folders, he pointed, well, as much as one can point with his head while his hands are tied behind his back, at the shelf containing the box with Christmas lights (something Robber A didn't need to know). “Over there.”

“Where?” A frowned.

“There,” Rey nodded, making a space for the 'robber' to pass. Or so he thought until he stumbled over her well-timed foot. She immediately kicked away the gun he dropped and barely leaned out of the way as he lunged at her. Fortunately, he didn't have a chance to inflict any damage as Ben knocked the wind out of him. For someone with tied hands he was still a formidable force. Robber A then connected with the shelf and dropped down unconscious. The whole commotion didn't even create more mess in the already messy room.

“Wow,” Rey breathed out. She had just knocked out a teambuilder together with Ben Solo of all people. Who knew?

“Yeah, wow,” he agreed, then turned to her anxiously. “You OK? He didn’t hurt you?”

Rey scoffed, secretly surprised he actually cared about her well-being. “Ben, calm down, I can take out bigger guys. Turn around, let's get rid of this tape.”

“You have great moves,” he mumbled shyly as Rey bit the end of tape and tugged.

“Taekwondo, six years.” She decided to omit all the street fighting she got in as a kid. Jakku was a rough place for a girl to grow up.

“Krav Maga, ten years,” Ben responded, eyeing her with newfound appreciation.

Rey smiled. “Cool. Can you?...” She nodded toward her hands.

“Sure. You’re not so bad for a scavenger, you know?” he asked her playfully.

“You’re not so bad for a corporate goth either,” Rey admitted, grinning despite herself. “Sorry that I called you whiny man-child.” Among other things.

“I deserved that,” Ben responded lightly. “I’m sorry, too. Truce?” he asked, offering his hand.

Rey shook it gladly. “Truce.”

Rose knew this day was shitty, but she had no idea it could get  _this_ shitty. Her bullet journal certainly didn't foresee being forced to teambuild with a whiny, pasty ginger while being  _tied_ to him. Literally. Of all people! Sure, Rey complained, too, but Rose knew better. She and Solo only needed to get it out of their system while Hux needed a surgeon to remove that stick from his ass.

“Can you separate us, please?” Hux attempted to whine politely. “The height difference is killing me.”

_Good_ , Rose thought vindictively. The 'robber' she dubbed Mr. Hesitant frowned in thought. 

“Don’t move,” he commanded, cutting the tape.

Somehow her hands ended up bound while Hux’s were free, though he pretended they weren't.  _What an ass_ , the girl thought.

“Thanks,” Rose muttered darkly.

“The jar,” Mr. Hesitant reminded pointedly. Hux proceeded to go to his office. As the accountant, he got a separate room to _concentrate better_ , not an open space like the rest of them; another reason she wanted to kick his pretentious ass.

“There it is,” the ginger nodded toward the jar.

Rose made to follow him, but Mr. Hesitant suddenly grabbed her around the waist in very not shy way.

“What’s the hurry, you pretty little thing?”

“Don’t touch me,” she hissed. If there was anyone she hated more than conceited asses, it was freaking gropers.

“Get your hands off her,” Hux commanded very calmly.

Mr. Not-So-Hesitant rolled his eyes. “Who’s holding the gun here?” He waved his hand to prove the point.

Hux didn’t look impressed.

“You’re going to regret it,” he promised.

_Oh yes_ , Rose agreed wholeheartedly.

“Who’s gonna stop me? You?”

The ginger smirked. “Her.”

Unfortunately for him, Mr. Not-So-Hesitant had his hand within Rose's biting radius and she didn't hesitate. Fuck chauvinistic pigs and their bad attitude!

“You bitch!” the 'robber' yelled, pushing her away forcefully.

Rose stumbled away just in time to see Hux dropping a heavy ledger on Mr. Not-So-Hesitant's head. The 'robber' went down like a sack of potatoes.

“Thanks,” Rose muttered, prodding her assailant vigorously with her patent leather shoe. A warm hand on her shoulder startled her from her pleasant vindictive pastime.

“Hey, you OK?”

Of all the things she ever expected to see on her nemesis's face,  _concern_ wasn't one of them. “Been better,” she muttered shakily, too overwhelmed to snap back. 

Surprisingly, Hux just picked her up and sat her down on his desk, inspecting her all over.

“Shit, it might bruise,” he cursed, gently touching her cheekbone where the 'robber’s' hand had grazed her. The ginger rummaged through his drawers, emerging victorious with some ointment he proceeded to apply to Rose's face. “Careful.”

_This_ was another thing she didn't expect from their always prissy and high-strung accountant. Caring, gentle, and surprisingly efficient Hux was something new, something Rose actually  _liked_ . “That was nice with the folder,” she said quietly.

Armitage looked down and blushed a little, another fascinating thing to discover. “I mean, annual accounts are nothing to  sneeze at. Sit still,” he commanded as Rose tried to get a better look at him.

“You’re actually a good guy deep down there, aren’t you?”

He blinked. “You honestly think so?”

“Uh-huh,” Rose hummed, glancing at him coyly.

“You’re not so bad yourself for a finger-biter,” Hux smirked, earning a gentle kick from her.

“Careful. You're not out of the woods yet.”

This was  _not_ what Dopheld Mitaka had imagined for his internship. He’d barely started at FO when it merged with the Resistance and suddenly his life turned into a  _minefield_ . And now his boss, usually a reasonable woman, came up with this ridiculous teambuilding thing. As if he lacked enough anxiety in his life to begin with.

“Can’t you move faster?” the 'robber' he mentally called Creeper asked impatiently.

“It’s not so easy when you’re tied to two other people,” Dopheld responded apologetically.

Both Kaydel and Bazine glared at him. He sighed. The girls were nice in general, but they were both the chatty, cool kind of female that had given him so much grief throughout school that they automatically made him anxious.

“Any guy would kill to be tied to two hot chicks,” Creeper supplied unhelpfully.

“Hey, that’s sexist,” both girl exclaimed simultaneously, glaring at him.

“Not me,” Dopheld sighed again.

“Excuse me?” Bazine gasped incredulously.

“Should we be offended?” demanded Kaydel.

“No!” _Great_ , now he had managed to offend his coworkers. Good job!

“I take it as yes,” Baz muttered darkly.

“I mean,” Dopheld frantically searched for an excuse, “I’m not into girls.” Ugh, even better. He had a way with words, for sure. Both girls turned to him, surprised. At least they weren't appalled as others had been.

“Huh? I had no idea,” mused Bazine.

“That’s because you should pay more attention to your colleagues,” Kaydel interjected.

Dopheld sighed. What a day.

Finally, they made it to Leia's office. Not a minute too soon.

“What’s next?” Mr. Creeper demanded.

“The safe,” Kay supplied.

“I do pay attention to my colleagues,” Bazine retorted, pouting.

The blonde snorted. “Yeah, ogling Solo.”

“Password?” the 'robber' demanded.

“Alderaan1977”

“And you don’t?” Baz raised an eyebrow in challenge.

Kaydel smirked. “No, I don’t.”

“It doesn’t work,” Mr. Creeper complained.

Kay rolled her eyes. “You’re spelling it wrong. Two a’s.”

“Then do it yourself.”

The blonde grinned. “Hands?”

“And since when don’t _you_ ogle Solo?” Baz wondered as the 'robber' cut the tape. “I bet even Mitaka does.”

“Hey,” Dopheld glared at her. Sure, Ben was an attractive individual, but he was also his boss and it was hardly appropriate.

“Since I’m in a committed relationship with my girlfriend,” Kaydel retorted, putting in the password. The safe beeped and opened, thank goodness.

“Didn’t see that coming,” Baz mused. “But I get the appeal. What?” she raised her eyebrows questioningly at the stares. “I swing both ways.”

“You’re worse than Dameron,” Kay muttered under her breath.

Baz smirked. “Is that a compliment?”

“What am I even doing here?” Dopheld wandered out loud.

“That’s hot,” Mr.Creeper suddenly supplied. “Kiss.”

The girls blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” he motioned with his gun. “Kiss.”

“Only a chauvinistic pig…” Kay launched into a speech she never finished because Bazine very swiftly and accurately applied her knee to the 'robber's' tender body parts. He squeaked and thudded into Leia's bookshelf. The fish tank, balanced precariously right above Mr.Creeper's head, slipped off the shelf and reached its target. The 'robber' went out like a light.

“Oops,” Dopheld winced. The guy was going to have one hell of a headache.

“That’s how it done,” Bazine said with satisfaction. “What? I grew up with four older brothers, I know a thing or two.”

“Poor Threepio,” Kay pitied the goldfish.

Dopheld snapped back to reality. “Let me get a glass.”

“And some tape,” Baz added, glaring at the 'robber.’ “Asshole.”

Gwen fidgeted. Partly because her back was itching, and partly because she was sure the two men she was tied with were engaging in PDA. Again. Finn Trooper had been trouble even when he’d worked at FO, but ever since the merger, Gwen found that him being in a relationship with Dameron made him downright insufferable. Just her luck.

“Stop moving,” the 'robber' she named The Twitch for his eye twitch commanded.

“This isn’t my fault. _You_ tied me up with them,” Gwen responded, annoyed.

“Do I look like I care?”

“We don’t know, you’re wearing a mask,” Dameron snorted.

“Is this a joke to you?” The Twitch yelled. “It’s a fucking robbery.”

“Dude, you threaten us with a gun while wearing a medical mask. It’s funny,” the flyboy laughed. “Come on, live a little. Or not,” he finished disappointedly as the 'robber' glared at him.

“Fucking morons. Where _are_ they with the money?”

“Which money?” Trooper blinked like the oblivious idiot he was.

“The birthday one.”

“HR,” they responded dutifully.

“Get up,” The Twitch commanded.

Dameron smiled. “No can do.”

“I said _get up_.”

“Perhaps you should untie us from the table first?” Gwen suggested diplomatically.

The Twitch cursed loudly and squatted to cut the tape. “Go. Go, go, go,” he yelled, brandishing his gun.

“Don’t threaten my boyfriend,” Trooper glared at him.

“Don’t argue.”

“Didn’t your boss tell you to stay put?” Dameron wondered.

“Shut up,” the 'robber' ordered.

“Looks like you don’t listen.”

The Twitch grabbed a fistful of Poe's hair and yelled into his face. “Shut up!”

“Stop that,” Gwen commanded sternly. “That’s harassment.” Where the hell did Leia find these morons? They could barely do their one task properly.

“That’s robbery, babe,” The Twitch snorted.

She saw red.  _Babe_ was a particularly detested pet name.

“What did you call me?” Gwen asked slowly, menacingly, making her colleagues shrink back.

“I don’t know, what did I call you, bitch?” the 'robber' mocked her. Poor bastard had no chance. When she was young, Gwen had played football and she was _good_. So good that even now she didn't break a sweat slamming the big armed guy into the wall. Besides, Trooper and Dameron had their own scores to settle with the idiot, and it didn't take long to subdue him.

“Good job, boys,” she praised, admiring their work. Ah, friendship was indeed magic.

“Happy to help. Where did you learn to do that?” Finn asked with an appropriate level of trepidation.

“Football,” Gwen responded nonchalantly. “I hate being called _babe_.”

“Noted,” Dameron supplied. “Remind us never to piss you off again?”

Her face split into a slow smile. “Sure.”

When Rey and Ben emerged from the woods, ahem, storage room, it had become apparent that ‘robbers’ B, C, and D had suffered the same fate as A.  _Good riddance_ , Rey thought to herself. Her friends and colleagues looked their usual, maybe a tiny bit disheveled, selves except for…

“OMG, Rose!” Rey yelped, noticing the reddened spot on her cheekbone. “Are you OK?”

The Asian girl rolled her eyes. “Yeah, fine. Armitage knocked that asshole out,” she informed them with a certain amount of pride.

“After she almost bit off his fingers,” the man in question supplied fondly.

Rey did a double take. What was going on? Not only had Rose used  _Hux’s_ first name, they were smiling at each other. And were they  _blushing_ ?!

“Keep talking like that and I’ll think you like me,” the Asian girl practically purred, prompting Hux’s face color to rival that of a tomato.

“Well, Ben knocked ours out, too,” Rey interjected, feeling oddly left out. Her partner in crime, ahem, teambuilding, had seen some action, too, after all. She could show off as well!

“Rey helped a lot,” Ben supplied suddenly.

Apparently he had been hovering over her all this time, still in a protective stance. What a sweet idiot.

“And she was spectacular. And vicious,” he added in an afterthought, though his admiration was palpable.

Rey beamed at him. “Ben wasn’t so bad himself,” she admitted easily, relishing in the feeling of his large palm on the small of her back. Turned out, Solo was actually OK, all things considered.

Rey’s musings were interrupted by Baz and Kay marching in, Mitaka hot on their heels with a glass containing Leia’s goldfish. Both girls looked ready to kill which wasn’t surprising, given how their day had gone.

“You OK?” Finn asked carefully.

“Some people need mandatory Women Studies,” Kaydel muttered darkly as Bazine nodded in agreement.

“Seconded.”

“So, what are we going to do with our ‘robbers’?” Poe asked.

His colleagues glanced at each other and smirked.

For the second time that day, the office door slammed open abruptly to reveal armed men, this time in uniform.

“Don’t move, police!”

No one batted an eyelash, just continuing on with their work. Looked like Leia had gone above and beyond with her little performance.

“Hi, officers,” Poe chirped as the police stared with mouths agape at the nicely tied ‘robbers’ in the center of the office.

A short, lithe figure pushed through the officers, ignoring their protesting cries.

“Thank God you’re all right!” Leia exclaimed loudly, hugging everyone she could reach.

“Of course we are,” Ben scoffed. Her Oscar-worthy performance wasn’t necessary.

“You could have been hurt!” his mother sniffed. “Those people, they attempted to rob the bank around the corner, the police were after them…”

“Mom, please.”

“We know what you did,” Phasma supplied.

Leia blinked at them, bewildered. “You what?”

“ _Teambuilding,_ ” Poe wiggled his eyebrows.

“It was fun while it lasted,” Rey agreed, “but seriously…”

“Wait, you think it was an _act_?” Leia gasped in horror. “My God, it’s KanjiClub!”

For a second everyone froze. Rey felt a little light-headed, the blood leaving her face. KanjiClub was a notorious gang accused of many crimes, violent, too. Were they..?

“Oh shit!” she gasped, realizing that those guns could have very well ended up used on them.

“We could have been killed!” Poe squeaked higher than usual.

“Fuck!” Ben cursed.

“I need a drink,” Rose voiced everyone’s thought.

Leia responded immediately. “On the house. You stupid kids, I was so scared,” she sniffed, initiating another group hug, interrupted by an officer.

They had statements to give.

Eventually, they answered all questions, the robbers were cuffed and taken away, and the police left. Rey tiredly rubbed her eyes. What a day this was. Worse than a strategy meeting. She felt more than heard another person approaching her carefully.

“Hey, Scavenger, how about a drink?” Ben asked, awkwardly carding his hand through his hair.

Why hadn’t she noticed before that he was an adorable doofus?

Rey smiled. “Your mom is paying anyway.”

“I could do better,” he smirked, leaning in. “I could use _Luke’s birthday money_.”

That elicited a whole-hearted laugh out of her. “Please,” Rey giggled happily, taking his hand.

“So, Taekwondo, huh?” Ben wondered. “Tell me more.”


End file.
